Barcelona are the first sports team in history to pay an average salary of £10million per annum, according to the latest Global Sports Salary Survey.
The last 12 months have seen Barcelona agree major new contracts with Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets and Lionel Messi, whose pre-tax wage packet comes in at around £50m-a-year, and add big-money signings including Philippe Coutinho, Malcom and Arturo Vidal.
That overhaul means the Spanish champions are paying their 22-strong first team squad an average of £10,454,259 a year, which translates to slightly over £200,000-a-week, enough to move them from fourth in the 2017 rankings to top of the table this season.
Real Madrid are in second place though their average salary in over £2m less than that of their Spanish rivals.
The remainder of the top eight is rounded out by NBA teams, led by the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors, both of whom have two of the 10 best paid players in the association in Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.
The report has been published on the Sporting Intelligence website since 2010 and for the past two seasons had been topped by NBA franchises, the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and the Thunder last year.
Sports' best-paying teams
Average annual salary per Sporting Intelligence
- Barcelona - £10,454,259
- Real Madrid - £8,089,582
- Oklahoma City Thunder - £7,848,811
- Golden State Warriors - £7,819,700
- Washington Wizards - £7,633,608
- Toronto Raptors - £7,577,470
- Houston Rockets - £7,487,744
- Miami Heat - £7,038,292
- Juventus - £6,726,615
- Manchester United - £6,534,654
Only two Premier League teams were in this year’s top 20– Manchester United at 10th and Manchester City at 20th – but the report revealed the English game was by far the best paying competition in football, with an average annual first team salary of £2.99m
In La Liga that number is £2.2m, falling to £1.5m in Serie A and £1.4m in the Bundesliga.
Analysis in the report from Omar Chaudhuri, head of football intelligence at advisory business 21st Club, noted that the average Premier League club pays a “premium” of 79 per cent more in wages than “a club of comparative performance levels on the continent” with the gap even more pronounced for those outside the so-called “top six”.
